About Me

Dr. F., having been driven to sheer unholy madness by the mendacity, folly, and criminality of the Bush Administration, not to mention the uncouth, ungrammatical, and vacuous rhetoric of its principal, has retreated to a better but imaginary world.

Recent Comments

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

When rioters attack, opinion in society tends to divide between those who say the rioters are subhuman something or others, and those who say "wait, they don't always riot. maybe there is something about their current circumstances (anger, hopelessness, desperation) provoking the riots.") You can guess which avenue I think is more fruitful for sociologic inquiry. You can also guess which attitude is most likely to be taken by the current masters of the world.

Regular readers may recognize some themes that Simon Baron-Cohen would identify with the essence of evil: ie, dehumanization of the opponent.

The opinions in the link are (mostly)worth a read.

BTW, I don't condone rioters, even if I think the circumstances that provoke riots are worth some scientific study.